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My first-ever attempt at ramen was a fun, creative yet challenging adventure and I'd say for a rookie attempt the final dish was, shall we say, given a passing grade. Like a B-.

From a visual standpoint and the contrasting tastes and textures, it was a good dish, but the broth lacked flavor. The noodles didn't really soak up much taste of the lipid broth. I brushed the salmon with Chinese dark soy sauce and it was delicious, but probably would have been better as a stand alone along with some rice. Yet it was a good starting point and along with what I've learned from you so far, I'm confident my next ramen dish will be better.

I bought fresh, frozen and dried noodles at the Asian market earlier in the week, all teetering on the definition of "ramen noodles." For this dish I chose these dried noodles-

Granted, they are "Japanese Style" noodles made in Taiwan, but I'm finding a lot of noodles labeled as "ramen" can be misleading-

So it's labeled as Chuka-Soba, Japanese Style Noodle, but can be used in both Ramen and Yaki Soba dishes. The noodles were made with wheat flour, cornstarch, salt,

soybean oil, potassium carbonate and yellow coloring-

I suppose you could call the garnishes I chose as spanning the globe, not exclusively Japanese. From the upper left to right: pickled lettuce from Fujian China,

lemon zest, pea shoots from California, green onion and pickled radish, (takuwan), from Hawaii. We haven't seen the start of the Spring salmon fishery in the Pacific Northwest, so I bought farm-raised salmon which was actually quite delicious and moist-

The noodles after boiling for about 4 minutes-

With the miso-dashi broth-

After broiling, I seasoned the salmon with Japanese togarashi spices, seasame oil, Chinese peppercorn chile oil and mustard seed oil made in Mumbai-

Miso soup is delicate in my taste view, and so I think ramen needs a more hearty broth like some of you have shown us. I'll work on the broth next time and choose some different garnishes, probably cut way back on the portion of the meat or seafood. It was a good, Asian noodle soup dish but I've got work to do.

I myself am partial to the old fashioned crinkle cut fries. They remind me of my childhood when pretty much any hamburger joint served them but only a few places in town now do so. For years I was on a quest to find a fancy cutter for crinkle cut fries, but settled on an inexpensive hand held cutter. I like how the crinkle fries have ripples and the higher edges get more crispy. I do like regular French fries, curly fries not so much and thick cut, so-so. But if you're up to it as I am on occasion, fry your potatoes in beef tallow, (like McDonald's did for years). I guess you've all just inspired me to make some crinkle fries!

Nice looking burgers, Nullo, Kristen, and Marlene!
We had Marlene burgers tonight. We have a birthday party this weekend, and I wanted to try these out. I used a little more S and P than called for. I eyeballed the the peanut butter, so I may have used too little, but the taste was very faint, s carcel;y detectable. I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all if I hadnt known it was in there. I skipped the pre-grill chill, but the burgers still held together just fine on the grill. Overall I think these were great burgers. Thanks for the recipe, Marlene!

I do make good gravy if I don't say so m'self but I brought back Ahh Bisto gravy mix from England...just add granules to boiling water and some of the meat juices, stir and crazy delicious gravy in about 30 seconds!